Nic's published works are now available for e-reader at Smashwords and Amazon, as well as other e-tailers. Visit Nic's book page for specific availability.

This blog showcases the ongoing and in-process work of Nicolas Wilson, full of wierd, fuzzy, wriggly things to tickle your brain. There tend to be several different projects ongoing at once, with their own posting schedules. Nic's publishing schedule briefly broke Nic's brain, but we replaced it with a melted Kit Kat bar we found under his toilet, and that seems to have him back online- better, even. Every November, check back daily to watch a novel birth itself in a month. Expect posting to return to its regular, if slightly assymetrical schedule outside of July and November novel writing marathons. 2014's project will be Next of Kin, a cyberpunk dystopia following a man chasing his brother's murderer.

02/27/15

Paul couldn’t be certain how long they’d been locked away. But he did know that things with Rica had gone from unpleasant to her snarling every single syllable at him. She bared her teeth, and he swore they were longer than before. “You killed Alisa. I loved her.”
He wanted to swallow his anger, and respond diplomatically, but his rage was overpowering. “Did you? You knew her a handful of months. You banged her. I'd believe you loved banging her. But loved her? I've had produce around longer than you two were together.”
“You really know how to get a woman's goat, you know that? I fucking understand why Lis wanted to kill you. And I'm sad that she didn't succeed.”
“You sound like you’re anxious to finish her work.”
“No,” Rica said. “If she wanted you dead, you’d be dead. She wanted the crew. She wanted all of us to be together.”
“She slaughtered Martin.”
“She fucked up. Like you fucked up with her. But the difference is nobody murdered you for it.”
She shoved him, and there was enough strength behind it that Paul left the floor behind, and smashed spine-first into the wall of the pod. It was enough to shake it on its moorings.
But he didn’t care. The whole world lost its color, and all he could see was Rica. Somewhere in the last vestiges of his rational mind, Paul recognized the moment. He felt the same with Alisa, when he chased her down. She was his whole world in that moment, and it took only a moment to decide what he wanted to do to her.
He balled his fist and threw a punch that his inner doctor suspected would break her jaw, her transformation be damned. But she was swifter than him, and ducked beneath the blow, and used his momentum to grapple him into the opposite wall.
In his head, Paul heard Levy say, “We’ve got to stop meeting this way, wall,” but couldn’t laugh at it. Before Paul could pick himself off the floor this time, Rica lunged at him, and pinned him to the ground. They grappled, raking fingernails across one another’s face while trying desperately to get at each other’s necks.
In the struggle, Rica put her knee in his crouch, and he doubled over, and it bought her enough distance to get her mouth over his neck. She bit down, but didn’t have the strength yet to tear through. She jerked her head from side to side, scraping bloody lines into his skin as he tried to pull away. She could feel Paul’s muscles swelling beneath her, saw the bones of his face jittering.
Then she stopped. “What the fuck is that?” she asked with her teeth still around his throat. He swallowed, and it unnerved the both of them hat his Adam’s Apple stroked against her tongue.
“Um,” he said, and turned red. “Sorry, about that. I know we were trying to kill each other and everything, but… I guess the way you threw me around was, kind of hot.”
Rica tried to hold it in, but couldn’t contain herself, and rolled off of him and laughed. When she could finally compose herself she sighed, and said, “If I had a quarter for every time a guy poked me with a wrestling boner, I'd have a roll of quarters- just like the one you're sporting.”
“Heh,” Paul chuckled, and rubbed his face.
“Just so long as you aren't planning to do anything with it, sport,” she said.
“God, no. I might have gotten away with what happened with my ex- and I emphasize might, because I wouldn't put it past Laura to meet me on the ground with a double barrel shotgun.”
“But you weren't yourself, with the wolfing.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But I've always loved Maria. And… Laura knows that.”
“Shit,” Rica said. “I've been there. And it isn't fun.”
“No. But I think… I think we'd made our peace with it. Or I thought we had. And then with everything… anyway, my point is I think I've used my get out of jail free card already. But we found your kryptonite: awkward erections.”
“Awkward erections are everybody's kryptonite. Except, ironically, Superman’s. Why else would he wear pants that tight?”
“Just when I thought an erection couldn’t get any more awkward.”
“You did kind of deserve that,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Probably.”

02/20/15

“It doesn’t feel right,” Clod said.
Ken sighed, and gave her an indulgent smile. “It shouldn’t.” But the smile faded. “Look, I like Paul. And I feel... responsible for him, and everything that's happened. But he's right. He and Rica, they aren't... expendable. But given the choice of losing the entire mission or losing the two of them- it's arithmetic.”
“I'm glad it's so easy to dehumanize us.”
“It isn't,” Ken protested. “Don't think for a moment that every single soul lost on the Perseus and the Moon isn't a weight on me. But my job is to make sure there are as few of them as possible- and if that means tossing two astronauts into the void to save the rest, it's what we do- fucked up as that sounds.”
“I know you've been through a lot. Losing Martin that way...” he sighed. “The Moon can function without an administrator, since most of the big decisions get made planetside, anyhow. But the Perseus... it requires a different kind of discipline. And leadership. It's not an easy role to have thrust on you, and particularly not under the circumstances. But we hired you to do the job because you had the right skills, and the right kind of potential. You can do this. And if the time comes, you will. If I’d ever had any doubts about that, there’d be somebody else in your seat right now.”
“I’ll get it done,” she said, “but I’m sure as hell not happy about it.”
“And that’s why you get to sit in the fancy seat.”
“Yeah,” she said, and turned off the monitor. She sighed, and marched towards the storage pods. Levy was sitting near the entrance, sweating. “Status?”
“Moist,” he said. “But just about done.”
“Reservations?” she asked.
“Some,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of us locking them up again- especially when this time… it feels different. Last time we were just trying to make sure Rica had an easy transformation. This time… it kind of feels like our reactor’s gone critical. And there’s nothing to do but hope the safety protocols work and we don’t melt down. But… I guess I take some comfort in that it’s like kenneling.”
“Hmm?”
“My family had a dog, Mittens. Cute little long haired Chihuahua. She loved to go on trips with the family. But she got ludicrously carsick. I’m pretty sure my parents were still finding vomit places when they sold their car ten years later. So the next year, on our big family vacation, we decided to put her up in a shelter. So we put her in her little carrier, hoping it would catch most of the projectile spew… and then nothing. Something about being in the kennel, it made her feel safe and I think kept her from running around and… well, anyway, the point was, we drove all the way to the kennel and she was fine, so we decided to just try taking her with us. And so long as she was inside her kennel, she was cool. So I’m trying to think of it as kenneling them. Except…”
“That in this case instead of painting the walls with vomit they’d be doing it with our blood and entrails?”
“In a nutshell.”

02/13/15

“So we're concerned that you two are going to wolf out when we get closer to Mars?” Clod asked.
“It's a possibility,” Paul said.
“Likelihood?” Clod asked.
“Probability is for crap in this case,” Paul said. “I could tell you one in four- but if that one is the outcome in the real world, then people have a one in one chance of getting hurt.”
“So we should take precautions,” she said.
“But this time I'm taking a tablet,” Rica said. “And I'd like my own room.”
“I don't know if that's a good idea,” Paul said. “If you are going to have issues. I want to be there. To keep you from hurting yourself.”
“Or anybody else?” she asked. “The way you stopped Alisa?”
Clod's mouth dropped open.
“If it comes to it,” Paul said. “And if it comes to it, I'd want you to stop me, too.”
She knew her reaction was more aggressive than usual- it was all she could do not to attack him outright. She had enough perspective to know she wasn’t in her right mind, and forced herself to say, “Okay.”
“Levy and I will gather up supplies. He rigged together some modifications. We should be able to have a little more power than last time, and we’ve hooked up one of the burners from the lab, so we can have some warm meals, at least for the first few days.”
“You okay?” Clod asked.
“Profoundly not,” Rica said.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked.
“Where to start… Paul murdered my girlfriend, and it’s hard not to think that a part of his reasoning was that she was a threat to his domination. And I’m now strong enough to threaten his dominance, and I’m about to be locked in a small cell with him and a convenient excuse for why ‘Two men enter, one man leave.’”
“Levy?” Clod asked.
“I think I finally understand his fascination with Thunderdome.”
“That’s reason enough to worry about you,” Clod deadpanned.
“But I feel really… vulnerable is probably the right word. Everything feels threatening. Everything puts me on edge. And I’ve always been shy. And introspective. And maybe a bit neurotic. But now those things make me want to fucking tear out the world’s throat.” She was shaking, and Clod reached out a hand to comfort her. “Don’t,” Rica said, and her voice was mostly growl.
“I can feel it,” she said, and a tear ran over the lip of her eyelid. “I’m losing control of myself. And as… scared as I am, of Paul, I’m just as scared of hurting anybody else. I hate that Lisa’s dead- but I’m just as scared of becoming her.”
“It’s different, now,” Clod said. “We know things we didn’t, then. We recognize the signs. And Paul’s been through all of this once, now. If we knew then what we’ve learned, maybe we could have helped Lis, but…” Clod reached for her, hesitated, then touched her arm, “you’re going to be okay.”

02/06/15

“So in your professional medical opinion?” Ken asked.
“I'd say there's no question to it. He did kind of bite one of my finger off, but... even for a baby he's docile. He's taken on canine socialization patterns- he's subordinated to basically everybody else in the pack.”
“But how would that translate to human beings?”
“You're thinking about lifting the quarantine?”
“Have to, at some point. Can't exactly cede the Moon to the monsters- no offense.”
“And what about us?” Mai asked.
“I don't follow,” Ken said.
“I mean are all of us destined for autopsy slabs in the Pentagon basement?”
“Oh,” Ken said, “that. You probably would be,” Ken said, “if the Pentagon understood what happened on the Moon. And given the overlap of astronauts and military personnel, it's probably only a matter of time before they get an inkling. But, what I'd like to propose, is a long-term experiment. Biometric data so far indicates that those infected with the wolf strain don't suffer the same microgravity complications as normal humans. We'd like to see how long that continues to be the case.”
“And what kind of a study length are we talking about?” Mai asked cautiously.
“Oh, I'd say generational. It ain't perfect,” Ken said, “but I doubt even the DoD is crazy enough to come to the Moon to try and harvest astronaut DNA secrets. And in the interim, I've bought the complicity of the general staff with donated tissue samples from Zero. They want to try and skip over that whole murderous rampage second act- which is probably going to take some genetic engineering. But I wouldn't trust them if we were to make it easy for them to snatch up former lunar astronauts.”
“But the cub takes his social cues from us. Bill and Skot were still in the ICU when he was born, and at first he snubbed them. But when he saw the rest of us giving them deference, he realized that wounded or not they were still a part of his pack. He's a smart little guy.”
“Should be,” Ken said. “He's got the biggest pair of brains on his mommas that rocket science could launch into space.”
“I did not think you were going to say brains,” Mai said.
“That's because you've got a filthy brain. An excellent science brain, but filthy, nonetheless.”
“And how did you know?”
“Man my age develops a sixth sense about these things.”
“Affairs? Office romance?”
“Lesbians.”
“Ah.”
“Oh, don't be a prude. I'm not the kind of man who spends hours abusing myself to the idea of visiting the set of a Girls Gone Wild. I just like knowing that out there, right now, there are girls kissing. It makes the universe a more beautiful place.”
“Still creepy.”
“Really?” Ken asked. “I thought that was one of my more endearing traits.”
“Creepy. But you're nearly old enough that you not understanding it's creepy is adorable. Give it another few years.”
“You bust balls just like my ex-wife. God, why is that a turn-on?”
“That's... less creepy. Really, it's a little sad.”
“Hey, she left me. I never said I didn't love her.”
“And I'm beginning to think that you mistook me for a different kind of doctor.”
“We were just doing chit chat. Lunar astronaut selection was outside my purview, so you Moon men and women I don't know from my racist Korean dry cleaner. But you want to stick to business we can. We need a resupply for the Moon.”
“But the next resupply isn't for months.”
“Maybe. But you also burned through your medical supplies, food reserves and batteries already. Plus, that emergency patch up job Skot did on the reactor won't last. Speed's been warning us since it happened that there's a crack in the containment, and that without further repairs the reactor will melt down again. And speaking of Speed, he's still operating at partial capacity since someone tore out his circuit boards.”
“I was under an influence.”
“Story of my life,” Ken said, “and also not my point. This whole plan we're talking about is a basic amnesty. Moon law is pretty mum on most of the affairs of men, and if we cannot talk about it long enough, I think the world will just remember how well the Lunar Station worked, and how we got a boot print on Mars. And I know the Elevator's busted. So I want to know honestly, Doc. Presuming that can be fixed, are you and the rest of your space werewolves going to eat your resupply crew?”
“I don't think so,” Mai said.
“You don't think so?” Ken asked. “That's not a good enough answer. We work for the premiere nerd farm on Earth. I need numbers I can later fudge.”
“Sixty to seventy percent certain we won't attack whoever comes up here.”
“See? That I can fudge to eighty, ninety percent.”
“Fudge?” Mai asked.
“This is the intersection of science and politics,” Ken said. Sometimes truth has to take one for the team. But thank you for your expert opinion.”
Ken shut off the broadcast, grinning.
“Why do I know that smile?” Alan asked.
“Have you ever been to a Vietnamese hooker?”
“No.”
“Then I have no idea.”
“No,” Alan said, understanding. “You could go to the Moon.”
“What?” Ken asked.
“That's what that smile was. The thought, however fleeting, that you might get a shot at the Moon.”
“Fleeting is right,” Ken said. “There's a dozen astronauts or more better qualified for the trip. And I think it'd take more than a bogeyman to make a dozen astronauts lose their grit. Like that moment when you catch the right light off your hooker's back and think she could be a well-preserved Linda Carter. It's a fun fantasy for a moment. But only a fool would organize his life around it.”

01/30/15

Maria’s face was red, and she glared with more malice than Mai had ever seen. “I swear to God, Mai, if you tell me to push one more fucking time, I'm going to tear off your favorite limb and beat you to death with it.”
“I told you I could cut the little Ewok out of you.”
“You've always been a little too eager to put your hands inside me,” Maria said, straining.
“But I've always been gentle- and you've always enjoyed yourself. And at this point you've got a kid half-way hanging out your hooha. Sure, for the first month, it would be a conversation starter, but he's only going to get bigger and kick harder the longer you wait to push.”
Maria hurt. She hurt more than she ever had- than the transformation, even. That was why she was fighting so hard not to push, because the pushing hurt even more- and it seemed like every push hurt more than the last. But she was fighting biology, and if the last eight months had taught her nothing else, it had taught her that biology always won out. So despite herself, she pushed one final time.
“Okay,” Mai said. “I've got him. You want to see him, or should I towel him off fi-uck!” There was a wet plop.
“What's wrong?” Maria asked, trying to sit up but not having the strength to.
Mai lowered herself to the floor. “Little bastard bit off the tip of one of my fingers, and crawled under your bed.”
“Will it grow back?”
“Fingers don’t grow- oh, yeah, probably.”
“But I guess that ends the suspense of whether or not my son inherited our disease.”
“Aw, you called it ‘our’ disease- though not ‘our’ son.”
“I thought you weren’t ready to be a mommy. I believe you said, ‘These tits weren’t made for milking’” she grabbed her chest for emphasis, and immediately regretted it. “Ow, remind me not to grab them so hard. Really sensitive.”
“Really?” Mai asked, grinning, and approaching with her hands up in a groping position.
“Woman, I will punch you in the tit- and I have birth-giving rage-strength- I guarantee that would hurt more.”
“You’re no fun.”
“Wait, where’s our son?”
“He’s around. I closed the door, so he won’t get far. Can't believe he's crawling and biting already. Painkillers holding up?”
“Yeah, thank God. He clawed his way out of me, like a cat. We’re super lucky we got accelerated healing, because that crap would really suck without it. It still sucks; because it hurts, but the hurt won't last for nearly as long.”
“Yeah,” Mai said, “about that. You’re sucking down about three times the normal dose of painkillers, thanks to that accelerated healing. It’s not all rainbows, I mean.”
“But about the kid,” Maria said, “he's ours if you want him to be. I just didn't want to sound like I was leveraging the kid for a larger claim on you.”
“I want us to be ours,” Mai said. “Aside from... all the tragedy, I've been happier with you in my life than with anyone else.” She swallowed and looked away. “And if I'm honest, I'm worried he is going to screw that up.”
“Hey. Just because I'm his mother, doesn't make me any less yours.”
“Doesn't it? I'm going to have to share you- something I've never been good at. And if he isn't either... I just know the biology enough to know that if I come between you two, I'm the one who gets left out in the cold.”
The baby slunk out from under the bed, leaving a trail of blood and amniotic fluid, like a grotesque little slug. He grabbed ahold of the side of the bed and tried to pull himself up. Then he yawned, and flopped over onto his butt. He seemed confused by gravity, and unsure if the slight pain on his rear warranted a response. He stared up at Mai, as if he hoped to glean some clue from her.
“My God,” Mai said.
“What?”
“Our son's beautiful.”
“Can I see him?” Maria asked.
“'Can I catch him?' is the operative question,” Mai said. She knelt onto the floor, and put out her hand. He sniffed at it, then rubbed his head against her palm. She slid her fingers under his goo-covered underarms, and picked him up.
Mai held the boy out to his mother.
“Our son,” Maria said, and pulled them both close.

01/23/15

“Paul’s incremental samples have been fascinating,” Jenkins said. “We’ve been able to compare his, well, we’re still arguing over the best terminology, but I favor the word mutation-”
“But symbiosis is more technically accurate-” Bronson bellowed.
“Which we’re not going to argue over at the moment,” Jenkins said firmly, “but his mutation has followed a linear assimilation pattern- that is it was methodical- though atypically fast.”
“We were able to isolate some of patient zero’s pristine DNA and inject that into a stem cell colony. Then we took a scraping of this new, clean colony and reintroduced it to the pathogen. It colonized zero’s cells at a logarithmic rate- slightly slower than Paul’s.”
“But Paul’s samples from Rica and Alisa are even more intriguing in that light. Because they show even faster colonization than in Paul. Specifically, Alisa’s samples show polynomial growth. And by the time Rica was infected, it was spreading at an exponential rate.”
“It was learning how to adapt to human DNA,” Paul muttered.
But it was lost, in that Mai, much closer to the Earth than Paul, started transmitting a question first. “One variable that has seemed to result in extra aggression on the lunar surface was presence of a pregnancy in the person of our primary carrier.” Mai’s eyes got wide as she realized what she’d said. “Um, whoops.”
The moment Paul heard that, and then saw her reaction, he knew. “Oh my God. Am I the dad?”
“Uh, in a way you’re kind of all of our sires, at this point,” Mai said. “But technically, uh, procreatively, yuppers.”
“Healthy?” he asked.
“Big for the second trimester, but yeah.”
“Is the baby a carrier?”
“Like a pigeon. He’ll have his mother’s big eyes, or she’ll her father’s big teeth… you get the idea.”
“Goddamnit,” Ken broke in. “Can you damned nerds stop talking long enough for us to get a word in edgewise? If we don’t establish some rules of order this is just going to proceed into chaos.”
“We’ve done some experimenting with various hormonal cultures,” Jenkins said. “Particularly the presence of reproductive mixes of hormones led to cultures with increased levels of norepinephrine, GABA, vasopressin and even oxytocin. So, in a nutshell, yeah, pregnancy hormones make this thing go bonkers. There’s really any number of explanations for it. It could be that it’s trying to protect the child, and so turns the mother hyperaggressive. It could also be that that particular mix messes with its internal chemistry, making it bonkers.”
“One more rub,” Mai said, “our ‘pack’ followed the primary carrier. But it was… I did things I don’t think I ever would have thought about doing, and not because she asked, but just because I thought it was what she wanted.”
“It’s not…” Jenkins furrowed his brow, “it isn’t surprising that these things could follow matriarchal leadership. There’s certainly precedents in the animal kingdom. Elephants, lions,” he swallowed, “sometimes wolves.”
“Sometimes?” Ken asked.
“Wolves tend to be… variable. Packs follow an alpha male and an alpha female. They each keep their own gender in check. Who ultimately leads depends on personality as much as anything, so female leadership happens quite frequently among wolves. But it’s also usually a partnership.”
“What happens when the female loses her alpha male?” Paul asked after a long delay.
“She finds another one.”
Mai turned red.
“Oh,” Paul said, and smiled. His wife had always had a type, and Mai definitely fit it.
“One thing we're still trying to figure out was why the Moon was so much bloodier. From what you've told us, the wolves there were more aggressive in aggregate, as well as more active.”
“I have had a thought,” Dr. Pierce said.
“Not this crap again,” muttered Bronson.
“It's not necessarily crap,” he said. “Myths often have some basis in real phenomenon. Early people who observed these wolf hybrids probably observed cycles that had to do with the moon. It may not be related to the lunar cycle, but say proximity. The moon is responsible for the tides. What if a similar phenomenon, on a cellular level, affects the change?”
“That... it's possible. If retarded.”
“But if all that's true, gravity would always be a factor on the moon. That could explain it.”
“But not the secession of hostilities.”
“There are a couple of possibilities, there. One, everyone being of the same, uh, for lack of a better word, species, might be enough. Alternately, the organisms are adaptive. It's possible they acclimated to the constant binary gravity.”
“What does that say about us?” Paul asked.
“I don’t follow,” said Bronson.
“They’re sufficiently far enough from the Earth and her moon that Perseus isn’t feeling significant effects from their dual gravity. But soon enough they’ll be entering into Martian space, and they’ll have Phobos and Deimos pulling on their heartstrings.”
“Shit,” Jenkins said.
“We’ll work the problem on our end,” Ken said, “but we’re open to suggestions.”
“Roger,” Paul said. “But if that’s it, I’d like a moment to consult with my lunar colleague. A personal matter.”
“Personal as in medically sensitive?” Ken asked, and raised an eyebrow. “Because if he’s developing a bulbus glandis I think it would be interesting to share with the whole class.”
“Personal as in personal,” Paul said.
“Okay, but if he’s developing a dog cock, I want to know about it,” Ken said, and hung up.
“You know, spending more than a year away from Earth, you start to… I guess you just forget what an incredible Ken can be,” Mai said.
Paul sighed. “Yeah. He means well. Sometimes. How’s Maria?” he asked, his voice was quieter, softer.
“Oh, she’s… good,” Mai said. “She’s been through a lot. Holds herself responsible for a lot.”
“No, I meant… well, I meant that, too. But I did the math and it’s been… she’s got to be close.”
Mai smiled. “About to burst,” she said.
“Healthy?”
“Kicks like a mule with grasshopper genes; and all of our tests have come up normal. Optimal, largely.”
“Damn,” Paul said.
“Isn’t that good news?” Mai asked.
“It is, and it isn’t. Optimal means, it means he’s probably going to turn out like us. And I just hope it doesn’t screw him up.”
“His mom’s got a good head on her shoulders. And genetically… this is probably the most perfect symbiotic relationship I’ve ever seen. I think it wants us to be healthy. I’m sure your son’s going to be fine.”
“My son…” he said, and swallowed.
“What?”
“Just, not a phrase I’d thought about. But is your conviction a medical opinion?”
She shook her head. “He’s going to be healthy. I know he will.”

01/16/15

“This is insane,” Jenkins protested.
“You can’t spell insane without NASA,” Ken said, and smiled.
“That’s… technically correct. Though you’d either have to reuse the second a or just badly misspell the word.”
“Insanity’s a prerequisite in our line of work,” Ken reaffirmed.
“That may be. But the DoD isn’t likely to just play ball.”
“Maybe,” Ken said. “But either we tempt them with a handy on our terms, or we clench up and wait to be ravished- and I don’t mean that by way of flowery fantasy novel seduction- I mean it in the prison shower room sense.”
“I got that. And don’t take my reservation to mean look what we’re wearing, we deserved it, but- what if this scientific prick tease only gets them more interested.”
“Should be that what we give them they can culture indefinitely. Should be more than enough to study. And if they’re reckless and crazy enough-” he paused, and smiled, “when they recklessly and crazily decide on human trials, they can snatch up some of their own recruits. Leastways that makes them less likely to cut them open, and at least guarantees medical, and benefits to their families. It ain’t perfect. And I can’t rule out the idea of cooler heads prevailing. The Joint Chiefs aren’t always warmongering sociopaths. Unless it’s Tuesday. But we’re here.”
Ken slid his keycard into the door, and tapped in his code. Most of the labs in that wing had been closed a decade, and the whole place still stunk of dust.
“Am I getting HBO anytime soon?” the old man asked before Ken could say a word.
“I told you you were free to go.”
“You said that, and then you said that the Chinese knew where I lived, and that the DoD would probably find out about me sooner rather than later, and that if I stayed you’d guarantee my safety- and get me HBO.”
“Well now we’ve got a bigger issue than your pretentious viewing habits.”
“Oh?” Hamish asked.
“I’m fairly certain the Defense Department knows about you. Not specifically, understand, but the generalities, that somebody of your… talents exists under their nose.”
“That is a big issue. And I can't say I like the prospect of being vivisected.”
“Vivisected?”
“My old man was with the contingent that oversaw the destruction of unit 731’s camp. He had pictures- all kind of pictures- of the horrors the Japanese inflicted on the Chinese. But I guess that’s what people do without ‘love thy enemy.’”
“You don’t think our Army’s a Christian?”
“Not since Vietnam, I don’t,” Hamish said.
Ken nodded. “I think I may have a way around your vivisection,” he said. “What I'd like to do is have Jenkins biopsy your important organ systems.”
“Again?” Hamish complained.
“One last time. Jenkins will escort the samples to the DoD. And I'll drive you the hell out out of here. I made sure there isn't a single mention of your name beyond the alias, ‘Zero,’ anywhere, in the official record. They shouldn't be able to track you down. If you want, you could disappear. If not- you should be able to live out the rest of your days at home.”

01/09/15

Skot woke to his arm throbbing. But that made sense. He was suffering from serious radiation poisoning. He forced his eyes open, and stared at his right elbow, where there was supposed to be a forearm.
“Sorry about that,” Mai said over the comms. She was standing on the other side of a heavy glass plate around his bed. “Bill's radiation therapy required more rads than we could get from the conventional method. And you were the nearest match for a donor. So it seemed synergistic until... well, we were getting a marrow sample and your arm fell off. The tendon deteriorated to the point where it couldn't hold your arm in place. The early indication is that it's going to grow back, once we've gotten rid of the irradiated tissue; I've got the limb on ice, and we might even be able to reattach that once your tendon's had time to heal.”
“Okay,” he said. “But how'd I get here?”
“I carried you're heavy ass,” Ang said, stepping into the room.
“Then why isn't he in here with me.
“Because he didn't spend ten minutes dinkering inside a nuclear reactor,” Mai said.
“But how'd he get inside?” Skot asked.
“Speed,” Ang said.
“Once you had repaired the reactors, I thought it prudent to allow him to retrieve you. And despite your threat, I felt rescuing you was worth the risk to my processors,” Speed said.
“You sneaky silicon bastard,” Skot said.
“More important,” Ang said, “now that you've made yourself into a giant irradiated wolf, what do we call you? The Incredible Hulf? A Wulk.”
“Abomination?” he asked sullenly. “How's Bill?”
“It's early days,” Mai said. “We managed to tank his immune system, which was step one. But trying to grow another immune system in its place, one that will tame his body's natural antagonism to this infection? Symbiosis. Whatever it is. It's a longer process- one I haven't really engaged in before. Early signs seem positive, and the planetside doctors I'm consulting with seem measuredly optimistic.”
“And the power?”
“We're back up to 60%. There's some damage we'll have to fix, but communications are back online. We've already found out some things. Perseus had a similar problem to ours.”
“Casualties?”
“Two.”
“The rest infected?”
“Half.”
“How'd they manage that?”
“I'm hoping to find out,” Mai said. “We're going to do a three-way video conference.”
“The video delays are going to be maddening at that range,” Skot said.
“But not as maddening for us as for Ground Control,” Mai said with a grin.

01/02/15

Skot hit several keys, and flipped through more screens than Ang could track. “Um. Near as I can tell the meltdown hasn't happened, yet. They've been pumping in coolant and water from across the Station, using the back-up electromagnet for containment. It was a lossy process- it's where all of the Station's power's gone, but it's kept the core from a technical meltdown.”
“I can't believe they programmed a back-up this thorough- then didn't tell anybody it was here.
The words, “They didn't,” flashed across his screen.
“Speed?” Skot asked.
“Indeed.”
“What happened?”
“Problem with reactor. Took all auxiliary power and batteries to contain it. Couldn't spare power to summon crew member, or run most of my processes. Am basically a very smart phone right now. Had to hope one of you would find this console. With help.”
“But Alpha and the train still had full power,” Ang said.
“Solar energy. I couldn't tap into it,” Speed wrote on the screen.
“We're here now,” Skot said. “What can we do?”
“Manufacturing defect in control rod. Reaction can't be slowed.”
“I'm not a nuclear engineer, Speed,” Skot said.
“Neither am I,” flashed across the screen.
“Apparently you've got enough power to run your wise-ass protocols.”
“Wise-assery built into my processors,” Speed replied. “Unfortunately, rods must be corrected manually.”
“How?” Skot asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer. Speed pulled up several schematics drawn in ASCII characters. “Did you have to actually name him 'Skot?' Couldn't we have spent a moment arguing over who gets to crawl into the nuclear hell?”
“Time of essence,” Speed typed.
“Yeah,” Skot said. “But there's one thing I need, first. Comms.”
“All power needed for containment.”
“Comms, or the world can burn, Speed. I'll be quick.”
A soft beep let him know the comms were back on. “Maria?” he called.
“The comms are back on,” she responded.
“Temporarily. Where's Vince?”
“He...” she hesitated, “he didn't make it.”
“Goddamnit. I'll get Bill his power. You can kill the comms again, Speed.”
Skot started stripping down to put on a radiation suit.
“Wait,” Ang said. “Are we sure this is a good idea?” he asked.
“I don't think letting the reactor melt down is,” Skot said.
“No, I mean- he said he's just a really smart phone right now. Maybe there's another way to-”
“He's a phone now,” Skot reiterated, “but when Speed put this in place, he was probably smarter than both of us put together- possibly the entire staff up here- pre-decimation. And if I don't do this, Bill dies soon, and all of us die before we get to later.”
“Vince wouldn't want this,” Ang said.
“If Vince wasn't a fucking corpse, I'd have to fight him to be the one rolling around in the nuclear pile.”
Ang started to take off his clothes.
“Whoa, there, fella,” Skot said. “I may swing that way, but I'm really not in a swinging mood right now.”
Ang rolled his eyes. “You might need help.”
“Don't be an igit. Only one of us probably has to die of radiation poisoning. And you know what? I'm okay with that. Vince was the love of my life. We were going to have kids together, when we rotated back to Earth. We'd already made arrangements with a pair of surrogates. We... had a life waiting for us on the other side of this empty fucking nothingness. And now there's nothing but the nothing. And I'm done fighting that. I'm okay with joining nothing.”
“You're upset. Let me do this.”
“I am upset,” Skot said. “But I'm also a widow. And a murderer and cannibal. And... I think I'm fucking done. I can shuffle off this coil with nothing left on my bucket list- and several things I'd have rather gone without doing. And if it means helping some people on my way out- I'm doing it.” He finished sealing his radiation suit, and stepped on the other side of a glass door. “Speed: shut and seal that door.” The door closed, but Skot didn't trust the computer not to open it if the other man asked nicely. “Ang's a pussy, in case you haven't noticed. He'll prioritize saving me over fixing the reactor- a choice that will ultimately doom everyone on the Station. And if you let him in and I survive, I swear to your manufacturer that I will tear out every processory, chip, board, diode and doodad out of you.”
Ang's eyes were wide, and he turned to the monitor. One word flashed across the screen: “Understood.”
Skot gave him a two finger salute. “Sorry,” he said. “You seem like a good guy. But I don't want you to save me. I'd rather know you're okay, too.”
Skot walked along a long, spiraling cement staircase into the radiation chamber. He laughed at the sign warning about the consequences of radiation poisoning even with a suit past that point as he walked by it.
The Geiger counter built into his suit wailed. He looked at the readout on his wrist, chuckled wryly to himself, and smashed the sensor against the wall.
Steam was rising out of the core. It burned him through the suit, but he kept moving forward. He could see the control rods, butted up against the edge of the reactor. One of the rods in particular was bent. It was a minor manufacturing defect, that had grown worse upon repeated use as the reactor cycled.
He felt faint from the heat, but kept moving, down into the core. He grabbed the rod with his right hand and pushed. It didn't budge. He could feel the muscles in his arms getting weaker. He thought of Vince, and wondered if he believed they'd be reunited in death, only to come to the conclusion he didn't. That made him angry, and he could feel his bones starting to stretch beneath the skin. He embraced the change, used its strength to push the rod. It bent, and the control rods slid into the reactor.
But the change kept coming. He took in a deep breath, and realized it was hot, and wet. He opened his eyes to see steam pouring into his suit. His increased size tore open his radiation suit. He inhaled a lungful of radioactive steam, and fell to the floor.
His arms ached, now, like they needed a trip to the dentist- which he was aware made no sense. But the control rod locked into place, and he grinned like a lunatic. “Hah, you fucker. Thought you could,” he stopped, because he couldn't remember the next word in the sentence without starting over. “Thought you could beat, beat me,” he muttered, and lost consciousness.

12/31/14

In preparation for the third Future Chronicles release next week, The Telepath Chronicles is $.99 through Sunday. And you can enter to win a copy of The Alien Chronicles by commenting here after you buy Telepath.

It's gonna be an exciting year. My schedule's gotten tossed this way and that, but I'll have lots of new stuff heading your way soon. I'm thrilled to share some of what's coming up this month, starting with an exclusive story set in Nexus' world, to be available in The Alien Chronicles. Nexus 2 is in editing, and won't be too far on its heels, everything permitting.

12/26/14

“Where's Vince?” Skot asked.
“I honestly don't know,” Ang said. “They hadn't found him or Colleen when I took the train up to Alpha to get the rest of you.”
“Nobody mentioned him,” Skot said. “I wanted to ask. But David's dead. Bill's dying...” Ang put his hand on Skot's shoulder. “Do you think that means-”
“I think it means nobody mentioned him. He could still be missing. Maybe he made it up to the spaceport. I doubt he'd be able to communicate with us down here with the power so screwed up.”
“All the more reason to get it back on, then,” Skot said. He didn't believe Ang, and even wondered if he was being manipulated. But he wanted something comforting for the moment, se he was glad to have the delusion.
Skot took Ang into the main electrical juncture room, past a sign that read “Speed's Room.” “Was he getting tired of people walking in on him masturbating?” Ang asked.
“Sort of,” Skot said. “He's surprisingly sensitive, for a computer. He didn't feel like part of the crew, not having his own space. And he's a massive array of servers, so it's not like we could just put him in his own pod- or even move him, really. So Vince had the bright idea of just putting the sign on the door, and having people knock. Which reminds me.” He stopped, and knocked out shave and a haircut on a metal circuit case. “Speed?” he called. “Crap. I didn't have high hopes. But this would have all been simpler if Speed was still up and running.”
“Can't we just flip his breaker?”
“Nope,” Skot said. “He's wired directly into the power. He's got breakers that can trip if there's a surge or something, but there's no way for me to reboot him. And you're biosystems, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Which means you're even more useless for this than I am,” he said. “But that's probably irrelevant, anyway,” Skot said. “Because we don't have the power to light a potato, let alone run the world's most advanced and sensitive server.” Skot turned the corner to Speed's server farm. There were circuit boards and chips strewn about the floor. “And from the looks of it, he might not be in working order even then. And unless you spent your childhood assembling computers-”
“Hey.”
“I meant as a hobby- then this is probably beyond our abilities.”
He moved past the servers to the central power juncture, to where the real damage was. “We've got breakers tripped. We've got what looks like a slashed up circuit. But really, it only looks bad. It's all pretty cosmetic- the kind of damage you get with a vandal, or a wild animal fucking up your systems. But not reasoned sabotage by somebody who knows what they're doing. Which is why I don't understand... fuck it. Maybe there's more to it than it appears. I'm going to flip the breakers, then do a full reboot of the power system. That should get us back to limping along, at least.”
Skot toggled the breakers first.
“Nothing?” Ang asked.
“Not surprising, there,” Skot said. “We're oddly constrained. The tripped breakers only made it worse. But it doesn't fix the underlying problem.” He typed his override into the console. Even the emergency lighting in the room went down. “Probably should have warned you about that. Power should come back in thirty seconds. And the medical areas have their own dedicated back up batteries, so the others should have continuous power regardless. It's just us standing around in the dark.”
There was silence, and Skot thought he heard movement somewhere in the dark. A low growl rumbled somewhere off to his left. Skot's heart started to race, and he felt his bones starting to stretch. He closed his eyes and clamped his hand down on the edge of the console he was logged into. It warped and groaned. When it passed, he said, “Not funny, Ang.”
The emergency lights came back on, and Ang stifled a laugh. “... it was a little funny.” Ang looked up at the ceiling. “How long before the rest of the lights come on?”
Skot frowned. “That should have done it. But I've got nothing. I'm being overridden. But that doesn't make any sense. The only thing that should be able to override power use is Speed, and he's an empty metal box right now.”
A door behind Skot opened.
“That's creepy,” he said. “And yet... it makes sense. If we're going to figure out where the power's gone wrong, the relay station's our best next step.”
Skot walked through the door. It only took him ten seconds to see there was no damage, not physically or electrically.
Another door slid open at the back of the room. “This time that doesn't make any sense. I've never even seen that door before,” Skot said.
“That's because it wasn't a door,” Ang said. “It was a flammmable materials cabinet.”
“Secret door?” Skot asked with a swallow. “My eleven year old Hardy Boys reading self just popped his first pubescent boner.”
“And we're following it?”
“I'm not going to spoil my eleven year old self's inaugural wood.”
Skot went through the door first. Ang eyed it suspiciously. He didn't trust it not to slam shut on them the moment he was through. And he'd seen enough adventure movies to know the Asian guy basically never made it to the end.
“Whoa,” Skot said.
Ang furrowed his brow. It looked like yet another small room packed tight with computers, to him.
“I did some wiring on the control room for that new reactor they installed in Houston. It looked exactly like this. Mother-fuck.”
“Please tell me that what's written on that monitor is an April Fool's joke,” Ang said.
“Why?” Skot asked, turning while asking, “What's it say?”
“Reactor meltdown,” they said together.

12/19/14

“How bad is it?” Maria asked.
Bill had been unconscious since about halfway through Mai's examination. “About as bad as it gets. His human immune system is attacking the wolf parts of him. And the wolf parts are, for lack of a better word, counterattacking. It's basically dueling autoimmune diseases- a microorganic civil war raging inside his body. And it really doesn't matter who's winning- he's losing.”
“And our solutions?”
“We're in kind of uncharted waters, since most human beings don't have chimaeric DNA.”
“I know that glint in your eyes. You've got a naughty idea- possibly unethical, but probably brilliant.”
“The transformation basically rewrites our DNA, right? The problem is his system's allergic to the new DNA. But there's a chance that the transformation would work again- on his immune system- if we could give his immune system a hard reboot, first.”
“You mean wiping his immune system. Like giving him AIDS?”
“I'm not sure the new DNA wouldn't be able to kick HIV's ass- at a minimum it would retard what's already a way too long process- Bill's got days, maybe weeks, if only because our bodies are now a hell of a lot more resilient. No. The only way I know of to reliably drain away somebody's immune system is radiation.”
“And we have that?” Maria asked.
“Some. My only reservation is that the wolf form might be more rad resistant. And we'd have to destroy bone marrow from both for this to work. Because if there's even a cell of the old marrow in place, it will reproduce and Bill will go through this whole thing again. And while these bodies are more resistant, I imagine they're still subject to the same idea of accumulation.”
“Come again for those of us without a background in human biology,” Skot said.
“You know the old adage that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger? That might be true emotionally, or psychologically. But physically it's bunk. Most things that don't kill us still take a toll. If it's a bump in the road, you know, the occasional cold, no big deal. But chronic injuries, illnesses, near-death experiences, bad habits like smoking or over or under eating- they all take time off your life. Stress shortens telomeres- and few things stress the body like illness.”
“When can we start him on radiation?”
“Immediately. But we'll need to get more power to the full medical office.”
“I can look into that,” Skot said.
“I'll go with him,” Ang said.

12/12/14

Ang and Bill stood alone at the far end of the train car. Melissa and Skot stood at the other end, glaring. They understood, intellectually, what Ang was doing, but it pissed them off. Melissa wanted to rip both of their throats out, on principle.
It all reminded Ang of a time in college. He'd been studying late in one of the labs, and had to take a far later train. He saw that look in the eyes of four boys, anger, frustration, rage. His every instinct told him to flee- but it was a train, functionally a cage on wheels, so there was nowhere to run. The rest played out in slow motion, they stalking around him, circling. He clutched his bag to his chest, tried to make himself as small as possible, make himself as defensible as possible.
They beat him. Broke his notebook and his reader. They didn't even make a pretense of mugging him. It was just about violence, and possibly about dominance.
But Ang was not the spindly little geek he'd been. He stood in front of Bill and bared his teeth. “Don't mistake my desire not to tear your throats out for an unwillingness to,” he said, with more bass in his voice than he'd ever had- even when he'd tried to sing along with old Tom Waits recordings back in college.
It brought Melissa and Skot back to their senses. “Sorry,” Melissa said. “It gets... overwhelming.”
“Then maybe you two should take a nap. We'll get to the Station in less than an hour. And we don't want to court tragedy out of boredom.”
They looked at each other, shrugged, and walked over to the chairs on opposite sides and laid down.
“They're right,” Bill said quietly.
“Hmm?”
“I'm sick. And it isn't a cold. I've never been this sick. And I had the flu and mono at the same time in high school. It feels like I'm dying, Ang.”
“Shut up, Bill,” Ang said. He knew that Bill talking about his weakness was only going to make Melissa and Skot want to kill him all the more. And a part of him knew Bill was right. He was dying. He could feel the same thing Melissa and Skot could.
Ang kept watch until the train pulled into the station. Skot shot up, and gave a little startled yip. Melissa was still sound asleep.
“Can you carry her?” Ang asked Skot.
“I'm feeling better,” Skot said, “except for when I think about why I'm feeling better. But that's starting to lose its potency, too.”
“Do it.”
Ang kept himself between Skot and Bill, though with Melissa in his arms Skot seemed distracted. He took them to the medical closet that had become Mai's home.
Colleen was sitting on the exam table while Maria cleaned blood off her with damp guaze.
“She okay?” Ang asked.
“Fine,” Mai said, then nodded to Melissa. “Her?”
“She's fine. Just sleepy. Bill, on the other hand...” Ang gestured to his right.
“I've been feeling woosy. And I collapsed. And...”
“I can smell it on you,” Mai said. “Come over here. We'll start in on some tests.”
Maria stopped wiping Colleen's forehead. “David?” she asked.
Skot looked away. “He didn't make it,” Ang said.
“Shit,” Maria said, and visibly shrunk.

12/05/14

“Shut up,” Mai said, leading Maria down the corridor.
“Mai, I'm sorry. He was killing you.”
“And I said shut the fuck up. Okay?”
“I'm not sure we should be out like this,” Maria said.
“What you and I did, we effectively seeded monsters throughout the Station. And either we harvest them, like Skot, and have some chance at saving them, or we leave them to grow up on their own, and make us maybe kill them all over again. And I'm frankly tired of being responsible for people we know dying.”
“I don't know how you can diagnose me with a hormone disorder directly responsible for my aggressive behavior and a few hours later be pissed at me when I react to a threatening situation aggressively.”
“You aren't that naïve, Maria,” Mai said. “Even if- and I'm saying if right now- if you arne't responsible for what happened, that doesn't mean I can't be pissed off at you for it. Anger isn't exactly logical. And maybe I'll feel like a bitch about it later and have to apologize- but know right now that arguing the fucking point with me does not get you brownie points. In fact, telling me I'm irrational and not allowed to feel the way I feel gives me a perfectly legitimate reason to be pissed at you.”
“Okay,” Maria said, not because she liked the conclusion- but because she didn't see a way around it. “I wish we could hail Ang and Skot,” Maria said. “I hate not knowing how things are going there.”
“And you're worried about the others, too, right?” Mai asked.
“I'm worried about all of them- how they are, and what they might be doing to each other.”
“Now you're worried?” Mai asked.
“Don't be Ang,” Maria said. “You were with me when we disabled Speed. You were with me in the cafeteria. I didn't... I didn't consciously want any of this. And neither did you. I understand it, on an instinctual level, now, but I would never have chosen this. And I know what I've done, okay? It's not like my brain strokes off and I get to not have to relive every horrible second of the things I've done to people I love.”
“I...” Mai started, “I know. But I'm sorry. I knew what I saw, and how I felt, and you've just been... icy. Like you'd stopped being you. And I was afraid that you were pulling away, and turning into someone I couldn't love even if you didn't, and,” she realized she was babbling, that her insecurities were bubbling over like a Hawaiian volcano's lava.
“I know,” Maria said, and wrapped her arm around Mai. Mai latched onto her like an infant, and realized for the first time how fragile she'd become.
“I love you,” Mai whispered.
“I know,” Maria said, and kissed the top of her head. “But we should get to the Elevator. Maybe it's just the baby, but I'm starting to feel a... connection to the others. Not metaphysical, just... emotional and psychological. And I need to know they're okay.”
Maria broke away from Mai and started down the corridor towards the Elevator. She stopped in the doorway. “What's that?” she asked Mai.
“I don't hear-” she cocked her head to the side. “Sobbing. Colleen.”
Maria didn't hear the name, because she was already running. She beat Mai to the control room by 5 full seconds, but couldn't force herself to go in.
“Jesus, Maria,” Mai said.
“I didn't do this.”
Mai saw one of the panels torn away. The back side of the room was painted with blood, and Vince was lying on the floor with half of his head gone. Colleen was sitting next to him, holding a gun. When she saw Mai, she tried to raise it to her own temple, but didn't get it raised above her chest before both arm and gun clattered to the floor.
As almost an afterthought, Colleen tried to raise the pistol at Maria, but the emotional weight of it far exceeded the weak pull of its mass on the lunar surface, and she couldn't raise it past Maria's knees. The gun slipped from her fingers, and splashed down in Vince's blood.
“He didn't want to be like you,” Colleen said, accusingly. “We didn't. But I was too weak. I couldn't... my babies... I couldn't...”
Maria knelt down beside Colleen, in blood, because it was everywhere, and pressed the other woman's head to her breast. “I know,” Maria said. “I understand.” She took the hand Colleen had filled with a gun, and pressed it to her belly, and said, “You're all my babies now.”
Colleen sobbed into Maria's neck, and held onto her tightly.

11/30/14

Okay, all. Next of Kin is finished, my rewrites await, and life is finally getting back to normal. In the middle of the hellish crazy, I got to metaphorically sit down with Michelle Browne, my coauthor for Euphoria/Dysphoria, and make some new friends. Check each site on the day of to hang out with us in the comments, and see bonus stuff, including a flash fiction, several disgusting recipes, interviews, and more.